LONDON:JUNE 12th, 1995.

SHELL COMMENCE TOW OF BRENT SPAR PLATFORM - GREENPEACE IN PURSUIT.

The Brent Spar flotilla currently consists of two tugs, the Smit Singapore and the President Hubert which are towing the Spar. Following this are two Shell support vessels the Rembas and the Torbas, which continuously spray water cannons around the Spar. Following this is the Greenpeace vessel Altair (phone ++ 871 130 2334) which is shadowed by the Grampian Pride. Bringing up the rear is the HMS Alderney, a British Navy Fisheries Patrol vessel has now joined the flotilla accompanying the Spar. The vessel is maintaining radio silence, but appears to be there to be monitoring the situation, apparently at the request of the UK Department of Trade and Industry.

48KB GIF or 19KB JPG. Brent Spar under tow. ©Greenpeace/Steve Cox.

Another vessel, the Brenda Viking, was leading the flotilla through the designated route through the deep waters of the Brent Field, but left this morning.

This morning, when the Altair launched some inflatable boats, the Rembas and Torbas immediately began spraying the Spar with water cannons, and sent a message out to Greenpeace saying that it was doing Fire practice; that it would be dangerous to go near the Spar and that Shell would have no liability if anyone was injured by doing so.

At 12.00 midday the position of the Brent Spar is 61 deg 04 North, 0 deg 11 East, which is 65 nautical miles from the original position. Current distance from Shetland is 45 Nautical miles.

54KB GIF or 18KB JPG. MV ALTAIR followihg the tow of the Brent Spar. ©Greenpeace/Steve Cox.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

The UK Department of Industry has now received from Greenpeace a copy of the Smit Engineering BV 1992 analysis of the decommissioning of the Brent Spar on land. Peter Holt, at the DTI's Oil and Gas Abandonment section in Aberdeen, is the contact: 44 1224 238 3216. Shell denies that this report contains the full cost breakdown, but this is not the case. For example, Shell yesterday told a journalist that the analysis did not include the costs of towing to the UK. It does -- under a section entitled "TOWING TO THE UK". A complete budgetary breakdown, detailing the cost of each step in the scrapping process involved in each of the onshore disposal options is available from Greenpeace. It is 16 pages long but provides the most realistic and detailed estimates available.

Two Early Day Motions, one protesting the Brent Spar dumping issue and the other calling for a halt in the light of the Smit report, have been tabled in the UK House of Commons

Shell is saying that the Spar would break up in shallow water, but the Smit report also addresses this question.

Please contact Chris Rose or Paul Horsman at Greenpeace UK ++44 171 354 5100 for more information.